Is EMC merging its Clariion SAN and Celerra NAS platforms or not? EMC president of information infrastructure products Pat Gelsinger discussed that topic with financial analysts today, and refused to tip his hand either way.

Gelsinger spoke about driving synergies between the midrange Clariion and Symmetrix enterprise SAN platforms during a webcast with analysts to discuss EMC technology. When asked why EMC isn’t merging Clariion and Symmetrix and that it’s “well known” that it is merging the Clariion and Celerra, Gelsinger said that was just rumor at this stage. He didn’t deny that convergence was coming either, though.

“I would point out on the Celerra and Clariion lines, there are wide rumors in the industry about our product strategy in those areas, but we haven’t made any public statements,” Gelsinger said. “Our plans are, we’re going to continue to carry forward the Clariion customers, we’re going to continue to carry forward the Celerra customers. There are opportunities for simplification in those product lines and more effective use for those products, but we haven’t laid out specific product strategies or brand strategies in either of those areas.”

For the record, Gelsinger’s answer on why not merge Clariion and Symmetrix was, “I haven’t said we will or we won’t.”

Rumors of convergence between Clariion and Celerra have been spreading for months. They were so strong in February that EMC issued denial. Now the convergence talk has started up again ahead of an expected Clariion upgrade launch. Many will probably take Gelsinger’s statement as more of a confirmation of a merger than a denial, but it appears that EMC is trying to keep the platforms separate for now.

Dell’s decision to begin branding Celerra makes the timing curious for platform convergence. Dell already sells Clariion, so why brand Celerra as a separate system if EMC is merging them soon?

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